Hosting a Reddit AMA at UF Health

BY ABIGAIL KNEALDEC 21, 2016

mashable.com

Introduction to Reddit and AMAs

According to Wikipedia, Reddit, more commonly written as reddit without the capitalization, is “a social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website”. Founded in 2005, Reddit now has over 542 million monthly visitors that post content in different categories called “subreddits”. The topics on these subreddits range from breaking news, science advancements, movie reviews, interesting facts, and cute images. Reddit has become known as “The front page of the Internet” with a constant stream of information flowing through the site’s main homepage.

One of the most popular subreddits is “IAmA” or “I Am A”, designated for “AMAs” or “Ask Me Anything”. This subreddit prompts users to ask an interesting individual “anything” that is within their area of expertise, similar to a press conference for government officials or celebrities. Most hosts chosen to do AMAs are recognizable and interesting to the public or general audience of Reddit, such as United States President Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Gates, rapper J. Cole, Al Gore, Larry King and Bernie Sanders. Successful Reddit AMAs can reach a large audience with thousands of impressions, pushing the host into the Internet spotlight.

This type of “interview” is incredibly effective because of the community’s response. Users ask honest and provoking questions that are unique from typical journalism. Past hosts have responded very well to the experience by thanking Reddit for the inspiring opportunity.

Participation and Process at UF Health Hosting a Reddit AMA with a leader of UF Health would boost our national and worldwide presence. The AMA would display us as a personal brand, reaching a younger audience that is difficult to reach on other social channels such as Facebook and Twitter. However, the purpose of an AMA is not to self-promote or encourage users to give money to an organization. This process should organically interest users without having the tone of a sales pitch.

While Reddit may seem intimidating to some, the website is intuitive and easy to navigate after introduction to the layout. With the help of a web team behind our potential host, the AMA should run smoothly. The process would begin with creating a profile for our host. Most users on Reddit would be interested in hearing from specialty doctors, nurses or members of our organization that work with a social interest in mind. We would then start a thread on the AMA subreddit to see if users are interested in learning more from this individual.

If the thread receives well with the “redditors”, the web team assisting the medical professional would set a set and date for the AMA with moderators of the subreddit. We would then be placed on the “upcoming AMA” sidebar, which is seen by almost 3 million subscribers, according to Ryan Holiday of Mashable. This ensures high exposure and engagement on the day of the AMA.

The headline of the AMA is extremely important in order to boost traffic. In 25 words or less, the headline tells Reddit who our individual is, what they do and why people should want to know more. Successful examples of this include:

“I am Astronaut Chris Hadfield, currently orbiting planet Earth.” “I am Benjamin Kyle, an amnesiac who woke up with no memories in 2004. AMA.” “I am Peter Moore, the longest held hostage in Iraq, kept captive for over 2.5 years.

AMA.” retrieved from mashable.com

We would then create a description for our individual, giving the readers general information about that person and what he or she does on an average day. This includes what our individual wants to talk about in the AMA session, with links to what he or she has done and is qualified in. Preparation is essential to having a successful AMA with anticipation of common questions. The most “upvoted” questions asked by users will move to the top of the thread and should be answered. Not all questions need to be answered, but the individual should not be dodgy in answering controversial questions. This can lead to our individual portraying an unflattering persona.

Reddit’s community is young, energetic and unreserved. Our host should be able to think creatively and vibrantly while answering questions. The web team behind the individual will take the lead in posting and typing the content, giving the host only one responsibility of thinking of responses. This channel is an excellent way to display our organization on a growing platform of Millennial and Generation X users.

Previous Experience with Reddit/AMA at UF Health

Concussion Clinic – Last quarter, 2016https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/5hdpvy/science_ama_series_were_the_university_of/